The Destruction
by InterestingCorpse
Summary: If Jenny had failed in The Chase and Julian had taken her back to Niflheim, what would she do to escape? Self destruct?
1. Chapter 1

So… Jenny was fucked. No more chances to win, no more tricks to play; Julian had her and there was no escape. He'd wrapped his arms around her and dropped them both down into the vortex, blue electricity crackling around them as they fell and Jenny screaming herself raw. The fall felt like it had gone on forever but was most likely only about ten seconds and, instead of the back-breaking impact she was expecting, Julian had landed them with a cat-like grace, his arms still wrapped tightly around her body. She struggled, trying to get away from him, but his arms were like steel, holding her in place as she screamed bloody murder at him. Julian had tried to calm her, whispering soothing nonsense as she twisted and writhed in his arms but, when she wouldn't, couldn't, calm down, he scooped her up and over his shoulder.

She'd been in such a state, wailing and hitting out at Julian as he carried her up the wrought iron spiral staircase that she hadn't really taken in the house. She remembered the staircase because going up it upside down had made her want to puke and she'd hoped that it'd flow right down Julian's back.

He'd plopped her down onto a huge ebony four-poster bed that was all black satin sheets and deep purple muslin curtains and then promptly disappeared, leaving her in a room with no doors or windows. To her eternal shame, Jenny didn't scream and howl obscenities at the ceiling like she always thought she would; instead, overcome with the uncanny despair of her situation, Jenny passed out and didn't dream.

In the morning, Jenny awoke and found herself facedown and unfortunately spread-eagled in a pile of black satin, shoes still on, skirt rucked up to right beneath her arse and she had the mother of all night wedgies.

'Classy, Jen,' she mumbled as she tried to untangle herself and pull her skirt down.

'Actually, I was rather enjoying the view.' Jenny gasped and flipped herself over, instinctively pulling at the slithery duvet cover so she could hide behind it. Julian was dressed all in deepest black, highlighting the way the snowy-white beauty of his pale skin contrasted with his combat trousers, short sleeved tshirt, that was almost snug around his lithe muscled arms, and his frosty-white hair looked artfully tousled. He was leaning back against the wall, which Jenny noted was decorated in black and silver damask just like she'd always wanted, with his arms crossed and he was smiling at her. Well, giving her that heavy lidded predatory cat smile that made him look like a smarmy shithead (_and kind of hot,_ she admitted to herself, sullenly).

Brow creasing, Jenny wondered how she knew it was morning if there were no windows in the room but then her eyes followed the soft hazy daylight back to its source. A huge inverted shield-shaped window with crossed dark wood beams took up nearly the entire left wall of the room. Beneath it there was a deep blue velvet covered loveseat, decorated with jewel coloured silky-looking scatter pillows. Outside the window Jenny could see a lush green lawn below, punctuated here and there by flowerbeds filled with lilies, roses and tulips of every imaginable colour and rustic looking benches. Further away, Jenny could see a large pond that had an aged stone bridge rising gently over it where you could watch the fish swim and dart around. Beyond that there was a large swimming pool, not Olympic sized but big enough to swim lengths in, and a patio-type area where there were sun loungers and big umbrellas for shading against the warm sunlight.

Jenny felt her eyebrows reaching for her hairline until she saw Julian's smile widening in pleasure at her reaction. _The bastard doesn't deserve happiness_, Jenny snarled to herself, thinking of Summer, of Tom, of how her friends had suffered at the hands of this arsehole. Straightening her back and lifting her chin, she forced herself to look him in the eye and show no fear, hiding her trembling hands behind her back as she bared her teeth at him and said 'You know who watches people sleep? Creepy. Fucking. Rapists.' Jenny hissed it at him with as much vitriol as she could manage, trying to force all her rage and hatred for him into her sharply punctuated words.

Julian's sly smile disappeared in an instant and his eyes narrowed further, until they were like razor sharp flecks of startling blue ice, his pupils small in a way that was rare; usually when he looked at Jenny, his pupils blew open, almost enveloping the blue depths of his iris. His arms slowly unfolded and moved to his sides where his fingers curled into fists as he glared at her, the tendons in his arms going taught and his knuckles turning even whiter as he clenched them. Jenny felt her stomach flip as her earlier courage ebbed in the face of his anger and, for the second time since he'd taken her, she wondered if she was going to throw up.

'Jenny,' Julian hissed, his habitually musical voice sharp edged with bitterness and fury, 'do not make the mistake of forgetting where you really are and what I am.' On the word am, the room around them flickered and Jenny gasped as the freezing winds of a biblical blizzard tore through her, ripping the breath from her lungs and blinding her in an instant as icy shards of rock, sharp as broken glass, sliced into her bare legs. For a second Jenny was truly terrified, bone-deep fear that manifested as the urge to scream and cover her face with her hands, but then it was gone and she was back in the bedroom, warm and quiet, the cuts on her legs mysteriously absent. Julian leaned his head to the side, glaring intently at her from underneath his thick black lashes before dropping his gaze and smiling to himself as he walked towards the bed. Jenny scuttled backwards until her back slammed against the ebony headboard and dug her fingernails into the palms off her hands, irrationally begging herself to wake up from this unbelievable nightmare, to no avail. There was no escape this time, not unless Julian wanted her to leave and, after all the horror of the games, that seemed unlikely.

Her stomach gurgled loudly and Julian pursed his lips into a tight smile, looking like he was trying not to laugh at the world's best joke. Jenny hated his mood swings, his unpredictability; it reminded her of when her alcoholic uncle, her father's brother, had come to stay during a particularly rough patch and the whole household had been forced to walk on egg shells so that he wouldn't suddenly blow up at them. When he finally did, he'd screamed violent threats at her little brother until her father came rushing in and threw him out of the house, hurling his luggage along after him.

'Look, Jenny, I don't want to fight today.' Julian was back to his reasonable voice, deceptively soothing in its gentleness and clarity. 'Are you hungry? I have breakfast for you.' With one of those quick, deft hand movements, he plucked a platter out of the air and placed it in front of her and, despite herself, Jenny felt saliva pool beneath her tongue as the smell hit her. Warm buttery croissants, little pots of jam, one strawberry, one raspberry, both seedless, a cafetierre filled with steaming, delicious smelling coffee, a jug of hot milk which had a mini electric whisk next to it in order to froth the milk and a small glass bottle of caramel syrup with which to sweeten her coffee. Her favourite breakfast laid out in front of her and all she could think about was the first time Audrey had introduced her to milk frothers and they'd ended up drinking an insane amount of coffee, jabbering away as they were overcome with caffeine jitters, crying with laughter at the state of each other and Dee's face when she arrived to find the two of them vibrating with energy and wearing milk foam moustaches. Jenny stared down at the tray and felt her mouth dry up, appetite gone, her stomach consumed with an aching homesickness and despair that brought the hot burning feeling of tears to her eyes.

'Julian, I want to go home.'


	2. Chapter 2

Naturally, her plea fell on deaf ears. Julian just smiled and disappeared again, leaving her alone in her plush cell. Choking back the screams that were desperate to come out of her, Jenny decided to investigate instead. Pushing the ignored breakfast away, she stood up, finally removing her wedgie, and wandered over to the window. The sun felt warm and comforting against her skin as she sat on the loveseat and curled her legs underneath her. The glass of the window was slightly warped in places, like old bottles, giving the garden a twisted appearance here and there. For a second she considered trying to smash through it so she could escape but that was stupid; where was she going to go? She couldn't go home. Just like at the beginning of the first game, when Jenny had been left alone in the parlour of the paper house, she found it difficult to truly comprehend that she couldn't just escape and run home, back to her family, back to Tom.

'Please be ok,' she whispered to herself, praying that Julian let them go, that they weren't trapped, or worse. Mindlessly reaching for a cushion, she curled herself around it and let herself ache with guilt and sadness, fear and self-loathing. She failed them. They'd all tried so hard, been so brave in their own ways but it hadn't mattered. Beat the Shadow Man once, ok, but twice? Apparently not. Jenny tried to soothe herself by laughing at the stupid Shadow Man name Julian had given himself but it's hard to laugh at something that has frightened you so much; shadows terrified her now.

As she shifted to press her cheek against the warm glass, something golden glinted out of the corner of her eye. The ring. The stupid fucking ring that wouldn't come off, that had divided her and Tom so badly. Well, it wasn't really the ring, she knew that, but what it represented; Jenny, the Devil's bride or whatever Tom had thought as he'd receded into himself, pulled away from her. Tugging at it again just to be sure, Jenny sighed and flipped it off with her other hand instead.

'I could get you a different ring, if you would prefer.'

Jenny gave a little shriek that shamed her greatly and her cheeks blazed as she scowled and resolutely refused to look at Julian. _Bastarding bastard, arrogant arsehole_ she chanted in her head, her hands taking her anger out on the cushion she was still clutching to her chest. It was so quiet that she could hear Julian padding over to her and she ground her teeth in frustration. The cushioning of the loveseat sank a little under his weight as he sat beside her, not close enough that he was touching her but way closer than she wanted him.

'Jenny…' he said, patiently, trying to coax her into conversation, 'Jenny, this doesn't have to be so hard.' Jenny snorted and turned her face further away from him, pressing her forehead against the glass, wishing as hard as she could that she was really looking out of her bedroom window at her backyard at home. Cool strong fingers curled under her jaw and clasped her chin, gently but firmly tugging her face back to him. She resisted but found herself inches from his face anyway, pinned like a butterfly under the watchful gaze of those deep blue eyes. His other hand came up to trace her eyebrow and she squeezed her eyes shut, flinching away from his touch, ignoring the tingle his stroke had left in her skin. Julian sighed and let go of her face, letting her move away from him, still holding onto her cushion like a little girl grasping at her teddy bear. It made her look weak, she knew, behaving this way, but it was instinctual; she needed something to hold onto.

When Julian didn't move or say anything else, Jenny opened her eyes and looked around the room. On the opposite side, there were two doors which hadn't been there before, both ornately carved and rustic looking with an ebony dressing table placed between them. On it lay an assortment of hairbrushes, perfumes, nail varnishes, lipsticks. Beneath it there were small drawers and Jenny wondered what was in them. The idea that Julian should've at least let her pack a suitcase crossed her mind and she huffed out a laugh.

'What? What's funny, Jenny?' He was looking at her again with that soft open look she'd seen from him in her grandfather's basement, before she tricked him into getting locked in that closet. With that memory rose others, kisses and butterfly soft touches that had awakened new desires in her, desires that Tom had never stirred. The guilt of that admission made her blush again and she wanted to slap herself. Instead she blew out a breath and met Julian's gaze.

'What's through the doors? I'm guessing not an exit,' Jenny asked, coldly, letting her eyes finish saying the rest of her sentence; _you kidnapping bastard_.

A look of relief crossed Julian's features as she spoke and he smiled again though his eyes were guarded and his head tilted. Standing up in one languid, graceful movement, he crossed the room and opened the door on the right, teasing it open with a flourish and a smile that made her want to punch him in the face; he looked so fucking smug.

'This is your walk in closet,' Julian said, eyes intense as they watched her face for a reaction, trying to see if Jenny got the joke. Of course she did; it just wasn't that funny. Not unless she trapped him in it, that'd be hilarious. Jenny kept quiet, her face resolutely impassive and unimpressed, as Julian tugged on a cord and the inside lit up. He motioned for her to come and look but she didn't move.

'I can see fine from here.'

'Jenny…'

'I'm not blind or near sighted, Julian, I can see. There are clothes in there. How exciting.' Jenny imagined Dee's scornful snort at Julian trying to tempt Jenny with clothes (and imagined Audrey's probable delight at the chance to dress Jenny up in strange clothing) and the guilt punched her in the gut again. Julian was riffling through the rack Jenny could see from her seat, looking from one dress to Jenny then back again. Despite what she'd said, Jenny couldn't really distinguish the length or cut of each dress he was considering but the colours were shocking. Emerald greens in silks, satins and velvets, sapphire blue that shimmered as it fell through his fingers, blazing oranges, blood reds and an alarming amount of pure white.

Jenny felt her lips twist and ducked her head so he wouldn't see; all the virginal white. How nice of Julian to pick a colour that would soak up the evidence of his defilement. And she knew where this was heading, of course she knew. Jenny may be a virgin but she wasn't an idiot; she'd seen it in his eyes ever since that first moment in the More Games store. The primal hunger of him as he kissed her until her knees failed, the gentle but desperate way he moved his hands over her skin. It was no surprise that he chose when he did to suck them into the first game. Jenny and Tom had been getting closer to sleeping together, both finally feeling like they were really ready. Grimly, Jenny wondered if Julian had ever watched while she and Tom had done… other things. The thought made her feel sick and violated.

'I think this one will do for today,' Julian murmured, holding an alarmingly short red dress in his hands, turning to show it to Jenny who scowled back.

'Where's the rest of it?'

Julian laughed, an unpleasant sound, scornful as much as it was genuine, as he laid the dress out on the bed for Jenny to consider. 'After all those ankle-length skirts your _Tommy_ made you wear, I would've thought you'd be grateful for something a little less…' his eyelids dropped for a second as he smirked, 'Victorian.'

Yup, Jenny thought, that was a virginity dig, trying to ignore the lump in her throat from the sound of her pet name for Tom. Her first instinct was to throw the dress right back in Julian's face and scream at him until her throat bled but a little sadistic inspiration struck as she unfolded her legs and stood up. Julian's eyes widened in happy surprise and, for a second, she saw the heart buried underneath that cold, psychopathic exterior. He rarely looked human, of course he wasn't, but in these moments, like when he'd given her the silver rose or asked her if she was sure she wanted to stay with him, Jenny saw a hint of what could've been if Julian was human. Then it was gone and he was smirking again, slowly running his fingers down the length of the dress, daring her to put it on.

Emboldened by the slip of his mask and her own rage at the way he'd twisted Tom's name into sounding like a repugnant expletive, Jenny decided to give Julian what he wanted and more than he bargained for. She carelessly dropped the cushion to the floor and then tugged the top she was wearing over her head and dropped that onto the floor too. The bra she was wearing wasn't lacy or exciting, thank fuck, but Julian looked at her like she'd just grown another head, his eyebrows getting lost in his hair as she slowly walked towards him.

_Ok, so, ok, that worked, that flustered him_, Jenny thought to herself as she tried to remain composed, while feeling completely naked, and considering her next move. Thanking whatever might be listening that she was wearing boring old regular underwear instead of a thong or those frilly things Tom liked, Jenny unzipped the side of her skirt and let it drop to her feet, Julian's jaw dropping along with it. _There, you bastard, that shocked you, didn't it._

As nonchalant as she could managed, Jenny picked up the dress, considered it for a moment (it was actually quite nice; longer than it had looked, not too cleavage-y and it felt soft in her hands, like some mixture of cotton, silk and fleece without being woolly or slithery, the sleeves short and the skirt kind of floaty rather than tight) and then popped it over her head and pulled it into place.

Julian just stared.


	3. Chapter 3

The look on his face at her brazenness was enough to eradicate Jenny's feelings of shame at her immodesty. Sweet and innocent, that was Jenny, that's what everyone always told her, what everyone thought of her. But what do you do when you're snatched from your life by a monster who terrifies you? You fight back.

'What do you think, Julian?' she asked, spitefully, feeling a little smug at his surprise. 'Is red my colour?'

Julian twisted his lips into a grimace, his nostrils flaring at her blatantly mocking tone, but she could see the longing in his eyes, how his fingers undulated like they were stroking her instead of the air. The tension in the room built and built as Julian silently stared at her, not straying from her eyes as he watched her. With a tingling neck and sweat beading her upper lip, Jenny turned away from him and walked back over to the window, aching to be outside instead of shut up in this prison.

She was just about to sit down when she felt a rush of air and cried out as Julian's arms wrapped around her, pulling her so that his chest was pressed against her back, his hands on her wrists as she struggled to pull away.

'Do you really think it's a good idea to tempt me, Jenny?' he hissed into the back of her neck before placing a kiss there that sent unwanted shivers down her spine. 'I'm not like your little boyfriend, that child who doesn't know what he's doing. I'm not a weak boy and I take what I want.' Jenny felt herself trembling and couldn't help but let out a little gasp of fear as Julian's grip on her wrists tightened and his lips travelled down from her neck, placing open-mouthed kissed down her back, pulling at her through the dress. _Oh shit, that was really, really stupid Jen. _

'Julian… I-' Julian ran his hand over her right shoulder and gently brushed his fingers against her neck, making Jenny bite her lip to not show that it was affecting her.

'I know you're not ready Jenny and I know why you're… acting out. I understand, more than you know.' Julian spoke quietly and gently and Jenny felt the knot of rage in her relax a little as she was lulled by his hypnotic voice. _No, don't forget Tom or Summer or Joey or your parents or Audrey or Dee or Michael or Zach don't you dare fucking forget! _Jenny screamed inside her head, over and over until Julian let her go. She could see his reflection in the window as he squinted his eyes, like he was in pain then he rolled his head back, like he was sighing to the heavens. Jenny couldn't help but blurt out 'Oh, I'm sorry! I am not being pliant enough for you!' Julian cocked an eyebrow at her as she spun round and shouted, as loudly as she could, 'Maybe that's because you killed my fucking friends!'

Breathing hard and readying herself for some sort of attack, _please no more bastard bees, _Jenny stared defiantly into his face, her spine straight, hands curled into fists at her sides. Julian didn't look angry though, to Jenny's surprise, more kind of curious… and hurt. _Hurt?_

His dark eyebrows drew together in a frown and then he shook his head, dropped his gaze, right hand coming up to rub his thumb along his bottom lip in an oddly human gesture as he spoke. 'Your friends aren't dead. I let them go.' Julian glanced up at her, 'I told you I would.'

Jenny stared at him, her mouth falling slightly open as she squinted unbelievingly at him. 'I'm supposed to trust your word?! Your word isn't worth the breath it's uttered with.' Jenny's voice was rising as she spoke, tears filling her eyes as she felt the rage and pain take her over. 'You _murdered_ Summer! I was supposed to protect her and she died because of your _stupid_, fucking _irrational_ obsession with a girl you don't even know!' Unconsciously, she stepped forward, closer to him, throwing her face in his as the dam broke and tears flooded down her cheeks as she started shouting again, all fear and control blasted away by her own guilt and the fury she felt at the evil thing that stood in front of her. 'Her parents begged me to tell them were she'd gone!' Jenny's voice cracked and a sob broke through unbidden from her chest as she let herself break. 'They fucking begged me, Julian, and I couldn't tell them anything! I couldn't give them any sort of comfort because _you,' _she pushed at him hard enough that he actually fell back a step, his face almost comically shocked at her outburst, 'you killed her and let her body sink down into that foul stinking pit of garbage! So don't you dare try to make out that there's anything good or trustworthy in you. You're a murderer.'

Jenny spun away from him and went back to the window, curling up on the loveseat and crying big hiccupy tears as she thought of Summer's mother's face as she'd pleaded with Jenny to tell her anything but this ridiculous paper house story and Jenny hadn't known what to say or do to make it right. She felt helpless then and she felt it again now and she hated it.

Julian was watching her reflection in the window as she cried and Jenny couldn't find it in herself to give a shit. _This is what you've done to me_, Jenny thought sadly, _why won't you just let me go?_

The seat dipped again as he sat down, this time further away, like he felt awkward and didn't know what he was supposed to do. _He probably doesn't, he can't feel_, she thought, her sobs beginning to subside and her head aching from the violent feelings.

'How can I prove it to you?' Julian asked suddenly in a pained voice, his head bowed with what looked like shame, though Jenny knew it couldn't be. 'If I show you what they're doing… where Summer is-'

Jenny's head snapped round to look at him when he said Summer's name, her heart pounding into overdrive as hope coursed through her. 'Don't say that if-'

Julian wrapped a cool around the back of her neck and leaned in close to her, so close she could see each individual thick black eyelash that adorned his stunning eyes, and said 'I can prove it.'


	4. Chapter 4

Tom hadn't left his room much in the last few days. His mother and father had both tried to comfort him in their own ways, his mother hugging him until he felt like his lungs were going to pop and his father clapping him on the shoulder and cheerily declaring that everything would be ok. It was easy for him to say, he didn't know the truth. No one really knew the truth except for them. After the debacle with the paper house and the police, they'd all agreed to plead ignorance, hoping the police would assume that… god, that the same thing that happened to Summer happened to Jenny. Not that, that was a solution; now the police were more focussed on them than before. It didn't matter, not to Tom. The police could do what they wanted, he didn't care. He'd fucked up so badly; he was useless and pathetic. He'd tried to give his life for Jenny, not as some heroic act straight out of a fairy tale but because he wanted her to be safe, to be happy, even if he didn't get be a part of that. But he fucked up. The looks on the faces of Jenny's parents, on her little brother Joey, they'd haunt him until he died.

The way he'd felt when the door back to Zach's garage had clicked open, when the crackling blue and black vortex and shrunk then disappeared above them, it was like having someone rip his lungs and still-beating heart from his torso. The others had got excited, Dee leaping up to go through the door, Zach following close behind and Audrey dragging a slightly wary looking Michael by his sleeve through it with her. Tom thought he heard them saying Jenny's name but there was a whistling in his ears that made it difficult to hear, difficult to balance. He staggered through the door, which slammed shut behind him then promptly disappeared, and tried to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The others were following behind Zach as he led them out of the total dark and into the garage proper then through the door into the kitchen. Tom didn't hope, tried not to feel as they looked around. He knew what they would find, or wouldn't find as the case may be.

Jenny wasn't there.

All five of them had wandered round the house calling for her, trying to find her. They found Michael's car not too far from Zach's house, its door still wide open, the keys still in the ignition. Michael tried to start the car and found it started easily so they piled in as best they could and set off for Michael's father's apartment. Jenny wasn't there either. Tom would never forget seeing the hope die in his friend's eyes as they all sank to the carpeted floor and stared down at their hands; no one spoke, no one could bring themselves to say it out loud. For a long time they just sat in silence, in defeat.

The next night, Tom had sat cross legged on his bed, his head in his hands, the world around him a strange timeless void where minutes could be hours and days flew past like seconds as he clutched at his head and tried to accept the fact that Jenny was gone.

She was gone. He had her. Julian, that evil, seductive bastard that Tom had had no chance at competing with, no chance at defeating. Tom had known, that day in the turret of the paper house where Julian had him chained up so he could torment him with images of Jenny being scared, anxious, brave, beautiful, showing him all the ways in which Julian could bring her alive. The first thing he'd done after the police finished questioning them and taking their statements, he'd gone straight to the university library and looked at every book that contained any mention of the djinn, the evil genies that could construct the world around them however they wished. Then he'd looked up and read anything about shadows or worlds full of ice and darkness. An encyclopaedia about Norse mythology had told him that, according to their lore, there were nine worlds that existed alongside Earth. Worlds with gold and giants and gods and freezing ice and a darkness no human could truly understand. Niflheim; that was the name of the world that contained creatures like Julian. Tom had checked and rechecked, reading anything he could about the supposedly fictional entities that existed in such place but Niflheim was the only place that seemed likely to have spawned a cruel and ruthless thing such as Julian.

It had been four days since they lost when Tom got the call from Dee. He'd been sat in his room, curled up in the corner, staring blindly at the opposite wall as his mind raced through the impossibility of his situation and his failure to do anything to stop. Tom had never been familiar with self-loathing until recently but now it felt like they were old friends. Failure, another foreign concept to Tom until now, beat against his brain, inside his skull, desperate to burst out and proclaim its ownership of him; he was useless, pathetic and impotent in the face of his loss. Jenny was gone and Tom was helpless to make it better.

He was mired into a particularly virulent bought of self-loathing when his private phone started to ring. Tom considered, briefly, ignoring it but then that evil little spark of hope that was like a sliver in glass embedded in his side made him reach out and pick up, just in case it was her.

It was Dee.

'Tom, Summer's back. Her parents just called me.' Dee's voice was unusually excited as she spoke. 'She appeared in her bedroom, still wearing the same dress. Apparently she doesn't remember anything after the paper house.'

Tom felt his mouth moving as he tried to speak but the ever present tears had only recently stopped flowing so his throat felt cracked, dusty and dry. 'Meeting, Michael's place. Two hours,' he managed to croak out before his shaking hand dropped the phone.

When he arrived, everyone else was already there, talking animatedly amongst themselves. He figured Summer wouldn't be there, that her parents probably wouldn't let her out of their sight for a long time and he was right but Dee had spoken to her again that afternoon and was cheerfully recounting the conversation for Audrey and Zach who were listening with rapt attention, their eyes wide and sparkling. Michael was smiling as he led Tom into the living room and handed him a cold can of some sort of soda that Tom silently accepted with a nod but didn't open.

'…they wanted her to be- Hi Tom,' Dee paused and smiled at him, her teeth bright white against her golden skin, 'Summer's parents wanted to have her checked out at the hospital before they let us know she was back but apparently she appeared the day after we got out of that mural thing. Her mum told me that Summer doesn't remember anything about where she's been or what happened. I spoke to her myself and she said she didn't say anything about the paper house because she wasn't sure if it'd really happened. She does remember the paper house up until she… her nightmare but she's going to plead ignorance and say she doesn't remember a thing; she said she figured that'd be the safest bet for all of us.' The others nodded and murmured agreement as Dee paused to glance at Tom. 'I… I told her, about Jenny being… gone.' Her voice was more subdued when she said this and an answering ache clenched through Tom's body, making his lungs constrict as his head thudded with pain.

'But this is good! Don't you see?' Michael looked around at them like they were total morons, 'If Summer can come back, just like that, then so can Jenny! Maybe Julian got bored with… with the whole thing, maybe Jenny will reap-'

'Summer was an olive branch,' Tom heard himself say in a quiet and bland voice, lifeless in its lack of inflection. His four friends looked at him, confused, as he rubbed a hand up over his face and into his hair.

'What do you mean? To us? So we won't co-,' Tom shook his head more violently than he meant to as he cut Audrey off.

'To Jenny. Ju… He never intended to kill Summer because he knew Jenny would never forgive him.' Tom spoke with his head bowed, his eyes fixed on the carpet beneath his feet. 'He knew that if he returned Summer, safe, unharmed, to us, to her parents that Jenny would… Jenny would…' he tried but he couldn't finish the sentence. The words hung heavy and unsaid in the tense atmosphere of the room; _Jenny would be able to love him._

No one said much after that.

Jenny pressed a hand against the screen that hung impossibly in the air in the small dark room Julian had led her to. As her hand pressed against the image, it flickered like ripples of water so she snatched her hand back, watching in fascination as the image stilled and sharpened again. Julian was behind her, leaning into the corner of the room. She could feel his eyes on her as she watched the people in the image bow their heads.

Julian had quietly explained that, because of where they were, hidden from the other Shadow Men, cloaked by Julian's power, that time would fluctuate, usually passing slower here than on Earth, although sometimes the flux would be the opposite. Jenny had just nodded, pushing away the endless loop that time and space facts can create in a person's mind and instead followed Julian into the room where a big rectangular silver shape with a warped mirror surface floated in the air like some perfectly captured still of mercury, poured into this shape and held there.

Now she saw her friends, in Michael's living room, looking crushed and sad as Tom finished speaking, but the screen had showed her Summer being reunited with her parents and her little brother, the family sobbing happily and holding each other close. Summer's parents were rocking their children like they were toddlers and Summer and Cam let themselves be comforted and comforting on Summer's bed, rumpling the sky blue bed covers as they clung to one another.

Jenny had felt an elation she could barely contain and had cried right along with her friend, quietly sniffing at the scene unfolding in front of her. When it vanished, she almost turned to yell at Julian to bring it back but then it flipped over to Michael's apartment, apparently a couple of days later, with Tom explaining why Jenny wasn't going to come back. Jenny wanted to yell and scream that it wasn't true, that she'd never love Julian, but they couldn't hear her, couldn't see her, so she didn't bother, just silently watched them as tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

Tom looked terrible; they all did. Audrey was rumpled in a boring casual black top and skirt, her hair unkempt and flowing. Michael was wearing sweatpants and a t shirt, both of which had seen better days and too many meals. Zach's ponytail was wonky and there were bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. Even Dee looked a little defeated, her shoulders hunched and the sparkle noticeably absent from her eyes but Tom, he was the worst. His hair was unwashed and sticking out in all different directions, his shirt had a torn pocket and the t shirt underneath had what looked like paint on it. His jeans were stiff and wrinkled, like they'd got wet but he hadn't bothered to change them. Her tom, usually so vibrant and effortlessly put together looked like he was falling apart. Jenny had never seen Tom look so pale either and the bags under his eyes were even worse than Zach's, purple and bloated like he'd been hit again and again. Jenny's heart throbbed painfully behind her ribs and her arms ached to reach out and hold hm, to tell him that she love _him_, not Julian. Never Julian.

'Tommy, I love you, I'm sorry,' Jenny whispered and bowed her head in defeat as the image immediately disappeared and Julian slipped his arms around her waist.

'I told you they were safe. You see? You can trust me.' Julian nuzzled against the soft skin of Jenny's neck, gently inhaling her sent as he spoke. 'You can always trust me because I love you.'

Jenny could only weep.


End file.
